Sweet As!

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Where do I start?! Nearly 2 weeks here in New Zealand now & I can't say a bad thing about it. It's funny cause when you arrive somewhere you always feel like you've loads of time to explore but when you actually try to break down your time, well.....it's hard to fit in everything!! When we arrived in to Christchurch we spent our first day wandering about the city. It was an unwelcome rainy start but that didn't deter us in finding our way to the supermarket & to our pleasant surprize, everything seems cheap again....well cheaper than home which is good when you're travelling for a year & trying to keep to a "budget". Yeah so we were like children with bulging eyes in the supermarket looking at all that we could get for our dollar. And the fruit & veg is so fresh.....yummy! Happy days.

After that we sourced ourselves a set of wheels to makes tracks out of the city & start exploring. So without leaving any stone unturned we got a nice white car....Kia-ora...means hello in Maori I think but it's also a Kia model so suits well. All's well until we realise that there's no aerial......yes there was one once but not anymore, in desperate need of a new fan-belt & wipers that collectively or separately sound like a banchee when in operation......a nice man workng in a garage sorted the wipers out but still trying to source a metal coat-hanger...ie acquire a coat-hanger to use as an aerial! Afraid no hope for the fan-belt though. May try to swap it for a "non-squealing" Kia when we get back to Christchurch next week. We'll see. So the ipod tunes are getting played overtime.....so by the time I get to South America I might actually be able to sing along to some of the songs on the marathon bus journeys.

Anyway from Christchurch we went to the Banks Peninsula just south of CC & stayed the night up in the mountains near Akaroa. The car is manual & it really is a slog going up hills so as we ascended up into the clouds, it was looking like we'd have to get out & push the car to our destination. The views are beautiful all around. The water looked turquoise as we looked down on it from the mountain. The windy roads were a bit like some of the country roads at home only here they have massive drop-offs with no barriers or verge so it would be certain death if you went over the edge. So after driving through the clouds for a while we ended up in a farmhouse-style hostel for the night at Le Bons Bay. Twas nice-had a lot of charm. We visited nearby Akaroa which is a sea-side town & had a wander there too & I started into my ice-cream diet in haste-only 2 months here you know.

After a night there we moved on up the coast. First stop Hanmer Springs. It's so great to have your own transport...you can stay where you want for however long you want & really aren't tied down to anything. And it's such a luxury carrying a small backpack into hostels-it makes travelling a joy!! So even though it's a moderate sized car, it has been engulfed by 2 overflowing rucksacks & all that we've acquired in the meantime. Grace's boyfriend is due out here in a week but not sure where we're going to put him yet......

So Hanmer Springs. It's a nice tourist town nestled in the mountains. Mt. Isobel is her name & we spent 2 days walking all the tracks that it has to offer. 1300m is about the highest point & thankfully it wasn't too nippy at the top. It started raining on our way down so it sped up our decent. The second day we'd only planned on a short walk but ended up out for about 5hours in the rain cause we don't like to feel beaten by the weather or the terrain....so I cursed the waterfall we were walking to the whole way up the million steps it took to get there & then cursed it some more when we got there.....cause it really wasn't worth the heartache.....well glad we perservered for "completeness sake". Had a sup of water to drink from the waterfall but that's about as impressive as it got. Camera stayed in the bag!

We stayed in such a lovely hostel there called Le Gite. The smaller hostels here are so nice, homely with a lovely atmosphere. We decided that we could splurge a bit more here too & went out for dinner.....well it was a gourmet meal for about 14 euro......filled us to the gills & tasty, value! After Hanmer we moved on to Kaikoura- means food & crayfish cause a lot of crayfish are fished in this area. It started off as a whaling settlement back in the mid 1800s but obviously that's long stopped......(it's only the Japanese who get to do that willy nilly) & now it's a busy tourist spot for whale-watching, seal & dolphin swimming. We stayed there 3 nights. While in Kaikoura we did a lovely walk of the peninsula where you can wander around the seal colony, watching seals as they bask in the heat of the sun on the rocks. Very cute. We spent another day tramping....the NZ term for hiking...on Mt. Fyffe....no relation to Mr. Banana Man! We left early in the morning & after a steep trek to the top on a dirt-road we reached the summit to be surrounded by clouds....could have been in my back garden cause could see about 10m ahead. Nonetheless we were lucky enough to be cloud-free on the way up so was able to appreciate the scenery. 1600m-the highest yet. It's funny cause I spent the whole time dreaming about the decent & cursing the mountain but when it actually comes to going downhill, it's nearly as bad......trying to stop yourself from thundering down is nearly as hard! All the same when you finish it's feels great!

I went dolphin swimming on the Saturday morning before we left. How fickle I am.....boats, waves & water just don't work for me & I paid for the privilege. Yes the dolpins were amazing......we saw hundreds of them in the pods & all of them doing acrobats all about the place but afraid I wasn't fit for swimmng with these delightful creatures. Ok it started off fairly smooth but by the time it came to getting into the water....just pulling the hood of my wetsuit on was horrific. I'm not particularly claustrophobic but I felt trapped. Hopped into the freezing cold water, heart pounding, breathing harder than I ever would playing volleyball & thought I was going to drown as the wretching started. Wasn't a pleasurable experience at all. The fumes of the little boat don't bode well either with a dodgy stomach. Anyway the moral of the story is "take the tablets....or dive to the bottom of the ocean" cause that sorts you out. Made 2 pledges that morning in the water...1)Never getting into water that cold ever again......don't care what nice mammals, creatures are there to be admired & 2)Never going dolphin, whale or seal watching again unless it's from the comfort of solid ground!! Three gingernut biscuits & a bucket of vomit later, the dolphin swimming was over, with not even a photo of them cause it was too much of an effort to focus. That said, if you don't get motion-sickness, you'd really enjoy it......they put on a spectacular show.

We'd planned to have crayfish that morning as we left but I passed on account of the sea-sicknes. Pity. Next stop- Picton.

But I'll end there for now 😊

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